July 31, 2011

On 15 May we drove to the east until it got late. Our first camp was on the shores of Gurmijn Nuur near the city of Bayan Ovoo. Virtually the first birds we saw there were two adult Relict Gulls which had been foraging on the shore. They flew out to the middle of the lake but returned next morning.

We checked the waterfowl in the fading light until it got too dark. Best birds we could find were a pair of Falcated Duck, and seeing 150 Stejneger's Scoters was also impressive. On the shore we had a White Wagtail of the subspecies M. a. ocularis and waders were on the move as demonstrated by incoming flocks (from the south) of Pied Avocet and Common Greenshank. We checked the lake again next morning and found the first “goodie”: a drake Greater Scaup, a species that has been recorded in Mongolia probably less than 10 times before!

Here we camped at the Kherlen River which has some higher vegetation. Brambling and Eurasian Siskin were still around, while Amur Falcon, Pallas’s Warbler and Taiga Flycatcher had arrived already. We remained at the spot another day (song of White’s Thrush in the early morning) and had a flock of migrating Pacific Golden Plover, and in the evening loads (= several hundred) of Yellow Wagtails came in to sleep in the willows.

On 18 May we moved on eastwards. The area east of Choibalsan is very flat and treeless but during a brief stop at the border police barracks (we needed to register there as we were entering the sensitive region along the Chinese border) Manfred spotted an unfamiliar bunting. This turned out to be our first Yellow-throated Bunting for the trip, a stunning male. As it had lightly damaged plumage we thought it would be our only observation of this species, which was regarded as accidental. So we asked for permission to take pictures, which was kindly granted. Very likely, these are the first photos ever of this species taken in Mongolia!

Although we had expected to see large numbers of Mongolian Gazelle during our cruise through Menengijn Tal, the biggest group was just over 200 individuals. Apparently many had left these plains. This was rather surprising as the region seemed to be not overgrazed at all (almost no people live in Menengijn Tal).

Nevertheless, finding a good reed bed (it was the beginning of songbird-migration!) was our task for today so we drove along the chain of lakes south of the plains. Unfortunately they all had dried up and no reed beds were left. So we ended up at a dry lake (already quite close to Ikh Tashgai Nuur) which had much degraded reeds. Here we spent the night.

July 24, 2011

This year’s trip brought us to Mongolia’s Far East where we hoped to see some “Eastern Specialties”. But: Statistics first!

duration: 3 weeks for Manfred and Alfons, 4 weeks for Thorsten and 5 weeks for the remaining three.mileage: 2440 kmspecies total (5 weeks): 234first records for Mongolia: 3second records for Mongolia: 1days without Common Raven logged: 11 consecutive in the eastdays without beer: 2 (but not at Ikh Nart!)

Warm-Up

As our warm-up we went to the Tuul gol (Tuul River) below Songijno Khairkhan Uul where our target species was Azure-winged Magpie. This area has some riparian forest left and the species is regularly (but not always) seen here. In the morning of May, 14th we met Brian Watmough, who is always interested to go out birding and then we drove the 25 km to the west of Ulaanbaatar.

In the beginning the group saw other birds like Wryneck, Hawfinch and White’s Thrush but then the first blue magpie was spotted. This one turned out to be part of a party of 16 birds which disliked the presence of their bigger relatives allowing us to observe them well for more than 10 minutes.

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BIRDING MONGOLIA covers any topic concerning wild birds in Mongolia: conservation, migration, observations, identification, projects, events etc. Contributions on other aspects of Mongolia’s natural heritage, as well as information from regions bordering Mongolia, are also featured from time to time.

Axel Bräunlich

I have been birding in Mongolia since 1995. Birding Mongolia was originally set up in March 2007, providing information on the fabulous birdlife (especially migration) at my local patch in Khovd, near the Altai Mountains in the west of the country, where I lived from 2005 to 2007. The blog grew rapidly, with contributions coming from more and more observers, and covering other parts of Mongolia, too.

Andreas Buchheim

I have been visiting Mongolia since 2004. It all started with gull research trips, but I now come to Mongolia at least twice a year, staying for about 6 months annually since 2010, not only for the continuing gull research but now mainly to be with my Mongolian wife and our son and to go birding. As a quasi resident of Ulaanbaatar, I do most of my birding around the city during winter but, luckily, I can visit the even more fascinating rural regions of this rapidly changing country during the warmer seasons.

Contributions (observations, photos, news etc) are very welcome! Any material contributed will be acknowledged and the copyright will remain with the author(s).

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